Ex traduce

Use in the book

The subsection opens with disputes about the soul's essence, origin, dependence on organs, location and immortality. Burton then says “Some holde that it is ex traduce” and lists authorities. That introductory some is the governing attribution. The modern edition expands “Phil.” as Philip, conventionally Melanchthon, while retaining uncertainties about other names and titles. The names establish how Burton presents the position; they do not independently verify that every cited author taught exactly the same doctrine.

The proposal is that one person begets another in both body and soul. The candle comparison makes transmission intelligible: one candle is lit from another. The source does not work out every implication of the analogy, such as the precise relation between the parent's continuing soul and the newly generated soul. Its immediate role is to illustrate production from seed rather than separate infusion. A lexical gloss should retain that limited explanatory role without turning the image into a complete metaphysical demonstration.

The next paragraph gives the proponents' argument. Otherwise, “say they,” a person begets only half a person and is worse off than a beast that begets both matter and form. They also argue about the three faculties of the soul: all would have to be infused together, although the two lower faculties in animals are generated, and in humans the faculties cannot properly be separated. The judgement “most absurd” is expressly theirs. Galen's supposition that the soul is bodily temperament follows as another position, not an unnoticed continuation of the same speaker's complete theory. The boundaries between voices are necessary to understanding why Burton has presented the objection.

The survey proceeds through immortality, transmigration and denial of immortality before reaching an alternative attributed to Jerome, Augustine and other Church Fathers. There the human soul is immortal, created from nothing and infused into the embryo. The souls of beasts, by contrast, are “ex traduce” and perish with the animals. Propagation and mortality are thus joined for beasts within that account; the original phrase alone does not mean mortal, and the earlier human propagation claim must not silently inherit this later conclusion. Burton refers doubters to these theologians and Scripture, then supplies philosophical defences of immortality. The movement is more than a permanently undecided list, although the blanket attribution to individual Fathers remains Burton's compressed report.

The timing of infusion is itself qualified. The body says six months after conception, but Burton's own margin says some place it at three days, some at six weeks, and others elsewhere. A reading that repeats six months as an agreed theological timetable loses the source's qualification. These are historical claims about the soul, not embryological findings. The following definition makes the rational soul contain and perform the powers of the two lower faculties: all three constitute one soul. That eventual account helps explain the earlier dispute about whether the faculties can be separately generated or infused, without making every premise of the earlier objection Burton's conclusion.

The source's final Table preserves the attribution in miniature: “ex traduce as some hold.” Its compressed route points back to, beside a separate reference for the soul's definition and faculties. The index is useful confirmation of the intended question, but it cannot replace the fuller discussion or its later contrast with animal souls.

Related entries

Soul; Maternal impressions; Seed; Natural, sensitive and rational soul; Metempsychosis; Temperament

Places to read

1. · paragraph 1–4the disputed origin of the rational soul, parental propagation, candle analogy and the proponents' objections
2. · paragraph 5–18intervening survey of immortality, transmigration and mortality
3. · paragraph 19–25human creation and infusion contrasted with animal propagation, conflicting timings, unity of the faculties and the opening definition of understanding
4. the English slander sense distinguished from Latin parental propagation
5. Unnumbered Tablethe compact route retaining “as some hold”

In this edition

“it is ex traduce” becomes “it is propagated from the parent.” At the later occurrence, “those of brutes, which are ex traduce” becomes “the souls of beasts, which are propagated from their parents.” The modern text supplies the noun souls to make the original pronoun's antecedent explicit. The same transmission phrase is therefore attached to different subjects and different argumentative positions.

“or as a candle from a candle, to be produced from the seed” becomes “the soul is produced from the seed as one candle is lit from another.” The rendering supplies the subject and the verb lit within the comparison. It explains the compressed sentence without adding a second independent authority for the theory. The Table's “transmitted through generation, as some maintain” keeps the same attribution. Elsewhere English “traduced” means maligned or slandered: the people distressed by it are the objects of defamation. This is a different use from the Latin propagation phrase.

candle from candle

Printed “as a candle from a candle” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: As one candle derives its light from another; the lighting verb is implicit.

Here: Analogy of one candle lighting another for production of the soul from parental seed.

Context: The modern sentence supplies soul and lit to unfold the compressed comparison.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: or as a candle from a candle, to be produced from the seed

Modern rendering: the soul is produced from the seed as one candle is lit from another

Word and construction: As a candle from a candle becomes as one candle is lit from another; lit is supplied to unfold the comparison. To be produced from the seed becomes the soul is produced from the seed, with soul and finite is supplied from the preceding subject. Or is absorbed in the modern restructuring.

Alignment convention

ex traduce · local use 1

Printed “ex traduce” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: By propagation or transmission from a parent.

Here: By propagation or transmission from the parent, here a reported theory of the human soul.

Context: Some governs the ensuing author list and theory; not an unqualified authorial assertion.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: Some holde that it is ex traduce

Modern rendering: Some hold that it is propagated from the parent

Word and construction: Ex traduce is the Latin propagation phrase, rendered propagated from the parent; Some holde that it is is the distinct English reporting frame. Parent is the contextual source of transmission made explicit, not an independently printed noun in the Latin phrase. Some limits attribution.

Alignment scope: Mixed English/Latin reporting clause and supplied modern rendering; indexed phrase itself Latin

ex traduce · local use 2

Printed “ex traduce” (Latin; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: By parental propagation.

Here: By parental propagation, here said of animal souls in contrast with separately created human souls.

Context: Account attributed to Church Fathers; mortality is a further predicate, not the lexical meaning of ex traduce.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: those of brutes, which are ex traduce

Modern rendering: the souls of beasts, which are propagated from their parents

Word and construction: Ex traduce gives propagated from their parents. Those is resolved as the souls, its antecedent from the preceding sentence; of brutes gives of beasts. Their parents explicates the source of generation. The Latin phrase is embedded in an English relative clause and does not itself assert mortality.

Alignment scope: Mixed English/Latin relative clause and supplied modern rendering; indexed phrase itself Latin

ex traduce · ex traduce as some hold

Printed “ex traduce as some hold” (Latin and English; phrase).

Printed form, Source wording, Original wording: ex traduce as some hold

Citation: The base Latin phrase is ex traduce; the exact indexed mixed-language construction also retains the English qualifier as some hold.

Meaning: Transmitted by generation, as some maintain.

Here: Parental propagation presented as an attributed view in the source Table.

Context: Index points to printed26; qualifier preserved in the compressed route.

Source: original body

Modern rendering: transmitted through generation, as some maintain

Word and construction: Ex traduce gives transmitted through generation; as some hold gives as some maintain, retaining the attribution. The indexed string is mixed Latin and English; the base phrase key ex traduce names only its Latin component.

Alignment convention

infuse

Printed “infused” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Introduced or poured into; here said of a separately created soul.

Here: Introduced into the embryo as a separately created soul.

Context: Contrasting human-origin account; printed timing is qualified by Burton’s own margin.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: created of nothing, and so infused into the childe or Embrio

Modern rendering: created from nothing and then infused into the child or embryo

Word and construction: Infused is retained as introduced into; created of nothing gives created from nothing, a separate act, while and so becomes and then. Childe or Embrio gives child or embryo. Creation from nothing is not the lexical meaning of infused.

Alignment convention

matter and form

Printed “matter and forme” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: Matter and form: the material and organizing form of a living being in the historical account.

Here: Paired constituents invoked in the argument about complete generation.

Context: The proponents compare human and animal generation; both specifies the claimed completeness.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: a beast that begets both matter and forme

Modern rendering: a beast, which begets both matter and form

Word and construction: Matter and forme gives matter and form. Both supplies the completeness claim; beast supplies the subject and begets the operation. The paired constituents are the material and organizing form of the generated living being in the historical account.

Alignment convention

say they

Printed “say they” (English; phrase).

Citation convention

Meaning: They say: a marker attributing the following claim to the reported speakers.

Here: Attribution of the following objection to proponents of parental propagation.

Context: They rather than Burton asserts the half-person objection; only is integral to the argument.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: otherwise, say they, a man begets but half a man

Modern rendering: Otherwise, they say, a person begets only half a person

Word and construction: Say they gives they say; otherwise marks the objection’s condition, and but half gives only half. A man becomes a person. The complete objection is not the meaning of the two-word attribution.

Alignment convention

traduce

Printed “traduced” (English; lemma). Attestation: word form.

Citation convention

Meaning: Maligned or slandered.

Here: Being maligned as a source of distress; a lexical boundary for the Latin propagation phrase.

Context: The sufferers are the objects of the defamation; Burton gives this among varied causes of distress, not as a theory of generation.

Source: original body

Source wording, Original wording: others by being traduced, slandered, abused, disgraced, vilified, or any way injured

Modern rendering: others because they are maligned, slandered, abused, disgraced, vilified or injured in any way

Word and construction: Traduced gives maligned. By being is recast because they are, making the connection to the preceding troubled explicit; the remaining offences retain their own words. This English passive form is not the Latin construction ex traduce.

Alignment convention